1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle mounting various evaluating apparatuses for evaluating the properties of road surfaces and an apparatus for processing evaluation data obtained by the evaluating apparatuses and, more particularly, to a vehicle for evaluating the properties of road surfaces which can automatically evaluate cracks, ruts (three-dimensional patterns formed in the road surfaces by wheels of automobiles), other road surface cross-section profiles, and longitudinal section profiles with reference to altitude upon one-time travel of the vehicle over an object road surface.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Vehicles mounting apparatuses for automatically evaluating cracks, ruts, and other road surface cross-section profiles of road surfaces have been known. These conventional evaluating vehicles measure from vehicles travelling on stationary roads. Therefore, accuracy and reliability of evaluation data may be poor. As for longitudinal section profiles, various techniques for automatically evaluating relative three-dimensional patterns have been proposed. However, means capable of automatic evaluation of longitudinal section profiles with reference to altitude has not been available, and in practice, such evaluation has been performed manually. A technique for reliably and accurately evaluating cracks, ruts, road surface cross-section profiles, and road surface longitudinal section profiles upon one-time travel on a given road surface has not been available. These problems will be discussed in more detail below: